The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-04-06
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Cheer For the Disheart.
ened." preached ut Kan.
sas City, Mo-

| DaVlQ, GQ9 TuDlCuQQ lhQ, Ildu D6cOIIe CNe
| battle worn warrior. Three thousand armed
men in pursuit Of him, he had hidden in the
cave OF Engedi, near the coast Of the Dead
Sea. Utterly tagged out with the pursuit, as
you have often been worn out with the trials
Of life, he SIT down and cried out: "No man
cared for my soul"
If you should fall through ha tchway, or
skyight, there would Be hundreds Of people
who would come around and pick up your
body and carry it to your home or to the
| hospital. ! saw great crowd Of people In
the street, and asked: What is the matter?"
and found out that poor laboring man had
fallen under sunstroke; and all our eyes were
| filled with tears at tho thought o. his dis
tyacted wife and his desolate home.
We are all sympathetic with physical disas-
ter, but how little sympathy for spiritual
| woes There are men in this house who have
| come to mid-life who have never yet been once
personally accosted about their eternal well
fare A great sermon dropped into an andi-
| but if this world is ever to be brought to God
| it will be through little sermons preached to
| private Christians to an audience Of one.
| The sisters letter postmarked at the
| village-the word uttered in your
hearing, half of smiles and half of tears-the
! religious postscript to a business letter-the
! card left at the door when you had some kind
Ol bTOuUle-Guo ellAlOuS VI SOluo Ollo
! across church aisle while an earnest sermon
was being preached, swung you into the King
| dom of God. But there are hundreds Of peo-
| pie in this house who will take the word that
/ David used in the past tense, and employ it
in the present tense, and cry out: mo man
cares for my soul"
You feel as you go out day by day-in the
tug and jostle Of life that it is every man for
| himself. You can endure the pressure Of
| commercial affairs, and would consider it al
| most impertinent for any one to ask you
whether you are making or losing money.
| But there have been times when you would
! have drawn your check for thousands Of dol
| lars if some would only help your soul out Of
its perplexites There are questions about
your higher destiny that ache, and distract,
! and agonize you at times. Let no one sup
rose that because you are busy all day with
hardware, or drygoods, or groceries, or grain,
that your thoughts are no longer than your
| yard stick, and stop atthe brass headed nails
of the store counter. When you speak once
about religious things you think S, 900 times
They call you worldling. You are not
wording. OF course you are industrious
and keep busy, but you have had your eyes
| You are not a fool. You know better
than any one can tell. You know that
few years at most will wind up your earthly
engagements, and that you will take resi-
| dence in distant sphere where all your
business adroitness would be a superfuity.
! You sometimes think till your head aches
about great religious subjects You 60 down
the street with your eyes fixed on the pave
ment, oblivious of the passing multitudes,
your thoughts gone on eternal expedition.
| You wonder if the Bible is true, how much Of
| 1t is literal and how much is fgurative law,
| if Christ be God, if there is anything like ret
ribution, If you are immortal, II resur-
rection will ever take place, what the occupa-
ton Of your departed kindred is. what you
will be 10 0O0 years from now. With cult
ured placidiGy OF countenance you are on
fir , with agitations of soul Oh, this solitary
anxiety Of your whole ifetime You have
sold goods to or bought them from Christian
people for ten years, and they have never
| whispered one word Of spiritual counsel. You
have passed up and down the aisles Of
| churches with men who knew that you had
no hope of heaven, and talked about the
weather and about your physical health, and
you most wanted to hear them speak, viz,
your everlasting spirit. Times without num-
Der you have felt in your heart, if you have
not uttered It with your lips: mo man cares
for my SOUL"
There have been times when you were espe-
cially pliable on the great subject Of re-
ligion. It was so, for instance, after you had
lOSU Joul 2ou huo 6iSt' Aho1iJ
letters blowing you up for being unf ortunate.
You showed that there had been cOncatena-
tion of circumstances and that your insol-
vency was no fault of yours. Your creditors
talked to you as though they would have 100
cents ou the dollar o.. your life. Protest after
protest tumbled in on your, desk: Men who
used to take your hand with both Of theirs
and shake it violently, now pass yol on the
street with an almost imperceptible nod. AT
ter six or eight hours Of scaldine business
anxiety you go home and you shut the door,
and throw yourself on the sofa and you feel
in state Of despair. You wish that some
one would come in and break up the gloom.
Everything seems to be against you-the
bank against you. Your creditors against
cal against you All the past against you.
All the future against you. You make re-
proachful outcry: "No man cares for my
SOUL"
There was another occasion when all the
doors of your heart swung open for sacred
influences. A bright light went out in your
household. Within three or four days there
were compressed sickness, death, obseauies.
You were so lonely that 100 people coming
into the house did not break up the solitari-
ness You were almost killed with the
domestic calamity. A few formal, perfume
tory words OF consolation were uttered on the
stairs before you went to the grave; but you
wanted some one to come and talk over the
whole matter, and recite the aLleviations, and
decipher the lessons of the dark bereavement.
No one came Many time you could not
sleep until 2 or o'clock in the morning and
then your sleep was a troubled dream, in
which were re-enacted all the scene of sickness,
and parting, and dissolution. Oh, what days
and nights they were! No man seemed to
| care for your SOUL
There was another occasion when your
Lo, e,,coonfth1o Thnrn nyrao a rrpQf
| awakening. There were hundreds Of people
who pressed into the kingdom Of God; some
| of them acquaintances, some business asSocl-
| ates, yes, perhaps, some members of your own
| family were baptised by sprinkling Or INNER.
sion. Christian people thought Of you, and
they called at your store, but you were out on
business. They stopped at your house; you
bad gone around to spend the evening. They
sent kindly message to you; somehow
by accident, you did not getit. The ifeboat
| Of the Gospel swept through the surf and
everybody seemed to get in but you. Every.
thing seemed to escape you. One touch OF
personal sympathy would have pushed you
into the kingdom of God When on commun-
ion day your friends went in, and your sons
and daughters went into the church, you
buried your face in your handkerchief and
sobbed: "Why am I left outs Everybody
seems to get saved but me. No man cares for
my soul"
Hearken to revelation have to make, 1t
| Is startling statement 1t Will 30 surprise
you that must prove it as go on Instead
of this total indifference all about you in re-
gard to your soul, have to tell you that
heaven, earth and hell are after your immor.
tai spirit-earth to cheat it, hell to destroy it,
heaven to redeem it. Although you may be
a stranger to the Christians in this house,
their faces would glow and their hearts would
bound if they saw you make one step heaven
ward. So intricate and far reaching is this
web of sympathy that could by one word
rouse a great many prayers in your behalf.
No one cares for your soul! Why, one signal